Vacuum regulators are well known in the gas pressure regulation and flow control industry. A variety of such devices have been developed over the years. Such devices are used in many applications, and medical applications are one of the more familiar, for example, where “suction” is required for removal of fluid from surgical incisions or breathing passageways wherein the vacuum applied must be limited to prevent damage or injury to soft tissues of the patient. Manufacturing processes are another known application for vacuum regulators.
Prior art vacuum regulation devices used in the medical field are fairly expensive to produce and maintain. Soaring medical industry costs demand a less expensive alternative. Further, it is often a requirement that vacuum applied in a medical application be supplied in an intermittent fashion, i.e., vacuum applied for a predetermined number of seconds, and then off for fixed or variable period of time in an intermittent cyclical fashion. A device with a related objective is disclosed in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,050 entitled Oxygen Valve System. The '050 device functions to conserve oxygen by intermittently enabling and disabling pressurized oxygen delivery from a pressure regulation device coupled to a high pressure oxygen tank.
What is needed is a vacuum regulator that is less expensive to produce, meets medical industry standards, that includes an internal vacuum gauge providing impact protection and that provides an intermittent flow capability.